


Wherever I may Roam

by LittleUggie



Series: Pack of Strays [7]
Category: Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Ears, M/M, Will's Dogs are People
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-02-07 11:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12840078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleUggie/pseuds/LittleUggie
Summary: Zoe's day out.





	Wherever I may Roam

**Author's Note:**

> So today I learned that Wolf Trap is a real place. The amount of geographical research that I did writing this fic was probably unnecessary.

The urge comes upon her quite suddenly one day in late spring. It didn’t usually happen like that. Most of the time it is a gradual build, a sort of energy that suffuses her until she has to move. But today, it is an immediate impulse. She drops the seed packets she was putting into planters, packs her backpack, and goes. 

In the past, people have tried to ask her where she goes, what she is looking for. Family, friends, lovers, packs: none of them ever understood that she was never going  _ somewhere _ . There was never a destination that she was headed toward. It was about the journey, the path beneath her constantly itchy feet. She lived nowhere, therefore she lived everywhere. It was a compulsion, she could admit that, but it wasn’t like it was hurting anyone so she never saw a reason to stop. 

Home, the way other people seemed to think of it was a foreign concept to her. Oh, as a child she lived in a house with parents and siblings, but even then she was aware of the temporary nature of that way of life. Her father was a military man. They moved around and when she left the care of her parents, she continued moving. 

There were a few men, and one or two women that almost made her consider stopping. She did love them, but not enough she supposed. Not enough to be tied down. So on she went, taking only bittersweet memories with her. 

Now, her feet lead her over the spongy ground that had so recently soaked up the winter snows. She walks at a steady pace, one that she knows she can keep up for hours. The terrain here isn’t too difficult, nothing like hiking the mountains that take up the other half of the state. She’s heading in a vaguely north eastern direction. After a few hours she comes out of the forested area and hits pavement. The road isn’t well maintained, there isn’t even a center line. Not a single car passes her for nearly an hour. Then, through the trees she hears the distinct sound of traffic.

She stops for a rest and to eat an apple and protein bar. Then she heads on, coming out onto a state highway. She walks in the direction of the traffic, cars whipping past her at high speeds. One stops a little ways ahead of her. The worried face of a young human woman peers out at her. 

“Do you need a ride somewhere?” 

“Where are you headed?” Zoe asks. 

“Uhmm, Bethesda.”

“That’ll do.” She climbs in the car. 

The young woman, Clarice, she learns is from West Virginia and is a trainee agent for the FBI. Huh. Small world. She seems concerned about Zoe, asking if she has family in the area, why she was walking on the road. 

Zoe smiles at her. She is so very young and serious. She has her whole life strictly planned out. 

“Sometimes, honey, you just have to get away.” 

Get away. That is a new phrase in her life. There was never really anything to get away from before The Pack. That is how she thinks of it. She had met many packs before, but this is The Pack. Her Pack. Will’s Pack. 

She is not quite sure how it happened. One day she was hiking through the woods and she comes across this little homestead with a nice covered porch so she sits down to have a rest. For her age, she is still quite spry, but sleeping on the ground takes its toll on anyone. Her first impression of Will is of a man who has seen too much to be surprised anymore. 

Maybe it was the way the pack just enveloped her. They took her as she was, but never tried to keep her. That is what made her stay. It wasn’t a conscious decision, but that urge that told her to move on never came. Instead, when she wandered there was a pull back. Zoe missed the farm and The Pack. She wonders if this is what people mean when they talk about being homesick.

Everytime she leaves, she considers if this will be the time she doesn’t return, if she’ll continue on into that great wide somewhere. And because she knows she can, that Will or anyone else in The Pack won’t try to stop her, she knows that she will return to Wolftrap. 

Clarice and Zoe part company in downtown Bethesda. The older woman has to wave off an offer of some money. Really, that girl is too nice for her own good. There is a small, hole-in-the-wall diner with an entrance around the back of one of the picturesque buildings found in most downtowns. They did a very good club sandwich and tomato soup, Zoe discovers. 

After eating, she putters about the area, looking in store windows and enjoying the spring air. In late afternoon, she sits down on a bench that turns out to be a bus stop. Without thinking about it, she boards the first bus that stops and proceeds to stay on stop after stop. Watching the other passengers is an interesting pass time. They scurry along, all headed somewhere, wrapped up tightly in their own lives. 

She had heard a word once,  _ sonder _ . The realization that everyone around you has their own personal story that they are the protagonist of. In her more reflective moods, she considers how she, in her nomadic life time, may have affected those she meets. How she fit into their story. 

When it stops at the metrorail, she leaves the bus and gets on a train. She comes out at Union Station, where she switches trains and heads toward Baltimore. Penn Station is impressive, with it’s high arches. It is night now, and the glass on the ceiling seems to glow with the reflections of the lights inside. The massive human shaped statue outside has a light gleaming at it’s heart. 

There is a bike rental area, and she gets one, heading up North Charles street. The street lamps and neon signs light up the night, the nocturnal crowd coming out for fun on the town after a long day at work. As much as she appreciates the country, there is a rhythm of life that cannot be found anywhere but in a big city. It’s invigorating. 

The marquee catches her eye. Metro Gallery’s sign proclaims the debut showing of a fiber artist. Zoe parks her bike in the appropriate rack, purchases a ticket and goes in. The exhibit is impressive. Strung from near invisible line from the ceiling, the artist had somehow managed to create hanging rooms. The fixtures were done in such a way that, while flat, they created a three dimensional effect.  When standing in a precise spot in the center of the gallery, they looked as if one could walk right into them. Zoe speds a long time admiring them, walking around the room to see it from different angles. 

In the lobby, she is looking at a calendar of exhibitions for the rest of the year when a familiar, distinctive voice catches her attention. Dr. Lecter is by the bar speaking with a lupine woman with a dark bob and rich looking red dress. Zoe is in the same jeans and cardigan that she had left the house in, with her well worn hiking boots on her feet. She’d checked her backpack at the door. Luckily, the crowd was a good mix of formal and informal so she didn’t stand out. Not that she would have cared much if she did. 

She approaches the pair. Hannibal turns before she can say anything. 

“Ms. Plume. What an unexpected pleasure to encounter you here. My I introduce my friend, Mrs. Elanie Komeda?” 

“Hello.” Now that she is closer, she can see that the woman is around her own age. Her ears are mostly dark, with a few white hairs lightening the tips. 

“Wonderful to meet you. Any friend of Hannibal’s is a friend of mine.” Mrs. Komeda had a flamboyant nature about her that Zoe liked. 

“If I had known you were planning to attend the exhibition, I would have offered to escort you.” Dr. Lecter says. “May I buy you a drink?” 

“Just a lemonade, if you are offering.” She smiles. “And I didn’t know I would be attending until I passed by. It peaked my interest, and I have not regretted the experience.” 

She chats with the two for the rest of the evening. Elanie is a hoot, with a sharp sense of humour a self assurance that comes from being comfortable in one’s own skin. Hannibal is his usual gracious self, though she does get a glimpse of another side of him. He obviously has been holding back his more imperious side around Will in deference to the other man’s status as Pack Alpha. 

He does not hide that aspect now. Other lupines and even humans are drawn in by his charisma. Zoe wonders why he isn’t leading a pack of his own. He could easily form one. Hell, he could probably take over every pack on the eastern seaboard if he put his mind to it. But instead he is carefully carving out a place for himself in The Pack. 

It’s getting rather late when they step out into the cool night air. Elanie went off to join some other friends of hers at some fancy sounding cocktail lounge. 

“May I walk with you to your car?” Hannibal asks, projecting an air of concerned gentlemanliness.

“That would be difficult since I don’t have one.” 

Hannibal blinks slowly, like a cat. Zoe cannot stop an amused little tail wag at that comparison. She doesn’t explain how she came to be in Baltimore, and he does not ask. Oh yes, he will fit in just fine in The Pack. 

“Well, it is getting quite late. May I offer you use of my guestroom if you have no other plans?” 

“I believe I will take you up on that.” 

Will’s previous description and a general knowledge about Hannibal prepared her somewhat for the house. She has to admit, though, it’s one of the higher class joints that she’s laid her head. She wakes up at sunrise, stretching luxuriously in the soft bed. There’s an en suite bathroom that has what seems like unlimited hot water (a non existent amenity when all The Pack is together). She comes downstairs refreshed, wearing clean clothes. Hannibal is dressed casually, another unseen side of him, and is pulling a frittata out of the oven. She laughs out loud at the picture. He raises an eyebrow at her in question.

“It has been a long time since a handsome man made me breakfast after I spent the night with him.” 

He smiles, too. “I suspect it will not be the last time. Were that my heart not otherwise engaged. You are quite the catch, Zoe.” 

She accepts a cup of coffee from him. “That’s the part that has always been an issue. I’ve never been one to stay caught.” 

“You are a free spirit. I find it admirable. There is something undeniably romantic about the nomadic lifestyle.” 

“In some ways I guess. It can be lonely, but I could never bring myself to stay before. Leaving was easier than the thought of staying.” 

“Will you leave the home you have found in Wolf Trap?” The question is not condemning, but one of simple curiosity. 

“I don’t know.” Zoe answers honestly. “Sometimes. My feet are too itchy to stop travelling altogether. But it’s nice to have...a somewhere.” 

Hannibal nods thoughtfully. She can see why he is such a good psychiatrist, he projects ‘interested listener’ well. 

“The Romani people have a word,  _ atachin tan _ . It means ‘stopping place’.” 

She tries out the unfamiliar pronunciation. “Yes. That sounds about right.” 

They eat in relative silence, though it is a comfortable one. When they are finished, he asks if she needs a ride to Wolf Trap. 

“Or anywhere else.” He adds. 

“No thank, you.” She says. “I’ll make my own way.”


End file.
